Blood from a Stone, Rex Caswell (Scatter Archive)
Invincible Time, Martina Verhoeven / Luis Lopes / Dirk Serries (Raw Tonk Records)
Blood from a Stone is the latest solo release from veteran improvising guitarist Rex Caswell (one third of the trio Bark!). Like his previous solo albums, Bricolage and Musicking, and his recent work as part of the Bark! trio (all well worth checking out, by the way), it was recorded at The Sweet Factory studio in Lincolnshire.
Casswell lists the objects/preparations he uses ‘in order of appearance’: ‘Silicone Honey Dipper, Double Bass Bow, Glockenspiel Beater/Knitting Needles, Battery Powered Pocket Fan, Whammy Palm, EBow Plus, Large Pallette Knife, Chop Stick’. He then goes to explore the potential released by these objects: he’s not imposing any conventional ideas about how to make music on a novel sound-world, rather he’s discovering what kind of music you can make with a guitar and, say, a knitting needle. It’s an intensely human process: it has a visceral quality to it and, although, you can’t see what he’s doing, you can both imagine it and sense the presence of an intuitive mind. As improviser THF Drenching says in the album notes, ‘only reluctantly, to my ears, does Rex allow more active modes of thought to impose larger forms on the dynamic logic of the actual brute matter that’s sounding.’ There are, inevitably, echoes of different styles: the first track has an almost funky vibe to it and, if you combine instrumental preparations with rhythmic movement, it’s almost impossible not to occasionally sound like Cage. However, Caswell uses the preparations to – to quote the album notes again – ‘utterly [estrange] the instrument. And by doing that, you’ve handed the whole question of meaning over to the associative creative logic of the human imagination to settle.’ There are allusions and dedications: the first track, which has a certain bassiness about it, is dedicated to bassist Peter Marsh. The title of the fourth track, I assume, is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Keith Rowe.
Going right back to the days of its first appearance, people have questioned the use of the term ‘experimental music’. Experiments are the way we test hypotheses and arrive at conclusions. Why should musicians impose sounds on an audience with no clear idea of the effect? It’s a criticism that misses the point: experimental music is experimental in the everyday sense of being exploratory. It’s made by musical explorers looking for ways to turn sound into new musical worlds. Caswell is one such. This is a magical album: the music is rich, varied and engaging. He does indeed extract blood from his stone.
Martina Verhoeven is something of a polymath. A bass player who has received worldwide acclaim for her photography, she now focusses instead on piano. She cites Morton Feldman and Salvador Dali as influences. Lisbon-based composer and improviser Luis Lopes came to jazz from the world of rock and punk. He plays sax and guitar (guitar, here) and has worked extensively with other improvising musicians. Belgian-based sound artist Dirk Serries has been working in the world of experimental music for over three decades (his early, dark ambient work was released under the pseudonym vidnaObmana). In recent years, influenced by the work of Derek Bailey, he’s turned his attention to guitar-centred free improvisation, becoming a significant figure in the Belgian free improv scene. He’s also curator of the A New Wave of Jazz Bandcamp label.
Recorded live at concert at Oude Klooster Chapel, Brecht, Belgium, back in May 2023, the music of Invincible Time consists of a single, 50-minute track. It begins with some quiet conversation between the guitars, with the odd laconic intervention from the piano. Five minutes in, it all turns busier, only to turn back into a world akin to the beginning a few minutes later. This becomes a pattern, although the music never returns to quite the same place: the next busy section is more percussive and, when it next subsides, it explores the long, sustained attacks of bowed guitar-notes. About ten minutes from the end, the music builds up to a dense, noisy climax, only to fall away into a series of piano chords which unfold over bowed guitar drones, music which feels like the only possible response to that which preceded it. There is a sense of having been on a journey and – as it should be – arriving at a very different place to where it began.
The Crumar piano is a great choice to go with two guitars and all three musicians really push the textural possibilities it throws up to the limit: the sound-world is such that sometimes it’s difficult to tell which sounds come from which instrument. And it’s as effective in the more intimate, contrapuntal music as it is in the noisier, more monumental sections. A great listen.
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Dominic Rivron
LINKS
Blood from a Stone: https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/blood-from-a-stone
Invincible Time: https://rawtonkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/invincible-time
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